It is 19 years ago this month that my dad passed away (on the 6th). He definitely wasn't as in to sports as I am now, but he would occasionally watch a Jazz game with me when I was young. The game I remember most was the Jazz vs. Bulls triple-overtime game. By the end of the third overtime Pippen had fouled out and Jordan got ejected. It was a thriller.
The game was on February 3rd, 1992. My dad died 3 days later. I always have this memory in my mind of him coming home from work and coming in the door at 6:30. I would be on the couch usually watching "Cheers" reruns when he walked in. My memory is that I would always half-heartedly glance over with a "hey dad" and turn back to my show. Why put any importance on his arrival? He comes home every day. . .
Last night I had setup a recording of the Jazz-Bulls game (ironic it's the Bulls again) because I wanted to see how Carlos Boozer played in his return to Salt Lake City. I saw the first quarter or so and thought, "I don't need to record the rest I probably won't come back and watch it anyway. Just another game." And I left to go play basketball with my friends like I always do on Wednesday nights.
It's funny to think back how you would react differently if you knew something big was going to happen. If I had known it was going to be Jerry Sloan's last game, I would have bailed on ball with my friends and watched every last second. I'm sure most of Utah feels the same. Maybe it's better to have just a quick, cut-it-off ending instead of some type of retirement tour.
I can't pinpoint the time when I became so emotionally invested in the Jazz, but I know it's been a long time. Watching a game, I still feel like I'm 11 years old watching it on Channel 13 KSTU, before even the days of KJZZ or FSN. I loved hearing Hot Rod call the games and of course watching Stockton and Malone. Through it all, Jerry Sloan has been the coach. I was seven years old when he started coaching. I remember at the end of '88 when Reagan's term was ending and my dad commented to me how he was the only President I had ever known. Well, here I am much later in life and Jerry Sloan is the only coach I've ever known, at least as far as my basketball memory takes me.
The first game I ever went to was against the 76ers at the Salt Palace. I don't remember the year but it had to be after Sloan was already the coach. I do remember seeing Barkley and his bald head. The Jazz won, and for some reason I remember the 76ers coach got ejected in the second half. That was just another game in the books then, but I still remember it today.
I've actually had the Jazz season of my life so far as far as attending games is concerned. I've been to seven games already this year with an 8th scheduled (so far), including both the Rockets and Thunder games last week (both losses, unfortunately). But somehow I got to see 2 of Sloan's final 3 games at home. Interesting that they were all losses, but that's just been the trend this season; losing at home for whatever reason.
I wish it could have gone on forever; just one of those things that is a big part of your life, but not something that is consciously on your mind because it's so routine.
During a news clip today they showed highlights from the early '90s. We've had some great teams over the years. Some of the highlights were showing Stockton making some absolutely ridiculous passes to Malone. Just watching the 30-seconds of highlights was a reminder as to how great those players were. The 2007 series over the Rockets, Game 7 in Houston, was also an incredible run. I'll never forget Andrei Kirilenko's ill-advised 3 pointer to tie the game 88-all. My friends and I are all screaming, "No, no, no!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It's funny how things work out. I've discussed future coaching candidates with friends for the past two years at least, always with the assumption that Sloan's departure was so far off that anybody we discussed wouldn't even be an option by the time the real decision came down. My favorite candidate was always Tyrone Corbin. Knows the Jazz: played for us, coached with us, part of the family so to speak. I can't help but wonder if part of Sloan's move was to help ensure Corbin was named the new head coach. While the details of why he really left today so suddenly are cloudy, if part of it was to segway Corbin into the new job, it was just one last sly coaching move from Sloan.
Thanks for 23 years. I love the Jazz!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
2010 Year in Review
2010 was truly an integral year in the life of Brandon Ball; looking back, I can’t believe I’m sitting where I am today and would have never believed at the start of the year that I would go through so much in one year. Here it is, the balltrain’s super-awesome 2010 year in review.
January- You know how every kid hates the first few days back at school, but then after a couple weeks you’re in the routine of school and you’re used to it so it’s not really that bad? I’ve decided that is the perfect analogy for busy season in public accounting. The first few nights of working til 8-9-10 ish are quite the grind, but after a week or so you get into the routine of it and suddenly you find yourself saying in your head, “It’s not so bad. I can deal with working late into the night every day for the foreseeable future.” I also indirectly experienced a key moment in January and I even posted on it earlier this year. I was working on the BMW audit and one of the accountants there had told me about how in late 2009 he had run a marathon in Greece. I thought that was one of the coolest things I had ever heard. A big accomplishment that he would remember forever and in Greece to boot. Pretty cool if you ask me and it turned out to be an inspiration for me just a short time later.
February/March- Really late January I get onto my main audit IHC. I had previously agreed with a coworker that we were going to lose weight starting January 1st, but I had done nothing up to that point in any effort to lose any weight. We decide as a team that during the audit we are going to have a weight loss competition. Everybody joins in, records their personal goals, and we decide to eat healthy (read: Subway every day) as much as possible. At the time I weigh in at 260, my all-time high.
So one night I’m sitting at home (it must have been a Saturday or Sunday) and my sister Jackie is over visiting. I tell her about my supposed weight loss goal but how I’m not sure how to start. She picks up my laptop and immediately goes to the signup page for the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in April. For some reason I decide to sign up, and my fate of 2010 being the year of the run is sealed. I start running a few times a week, usually around midnight in the freezing February cold, just a few miles each time around my neighborhood. I also start spending Saturday mornings on “long” runs, which on the first Saturday meant a healthy 3 miles, which felt like forever at the time.
I hurt my foot a couple weeks before the big half marathon and wanted to just bail completely, but I’m convinced by Jackie and my sweet wife to just go for it anyway. I finish if I remember correctly at 2:48. Not a great time but I was at mile 11 when the full marathon winner passed me by so I thought that was pretty good for me.
May- So after the marathon I tell Jackie, “You know, if I kept running for a couple more years I might be ready to run a marathon in a couple years”. So since the St. George Marathon has a 3rd year guaranteed entry in the lottery, I tell her to sign us up for it, assuming of course this is year one of getting rejected from the lottery. So when the email came titled “Good News from St. George Marathon” I knew I was in trouble! Problem was, Jackie did something wrong on the registration so somehow she was rejected while I got in alone! But I set off to start running and basically every Saturday the entire summer I was out running a “long” run in preparation.
June- We were positive that our daughter would come the same way as Cannon, so we scheduled an inducement a few days after the due date. Thursday June 17th was the due date, but we went to bed as usual. Next thing I know I’m waking up just after midnight and Rachel is packing a bag. “What are you doing?” “I think my water just broke we need to go to the hospital.” I was totally shocked that she was coming on her own! We had to wake up Cannon and drop him off at my mom’s on the way to the hospital. He was NOT pleased and we could hear his screaming even outside. Lesson: try to not wake your kids up at 1 am and drop them off while they are still not fully awake and disoriented.
So we get to the hospital, and a few short hours later Brooklyn Ball is born! It actually worked out perfectly, just Rachel and I alone for a few hours waiting for our baby, and she’s born before the world wakes up and even knew what was happening. It was a fun experience and went way smoother than the inducement so we were happy all around.
So I took two weeks off after Brooklyn was born. It was supposed to be to relax with my children, but in reality it was to finish our basement. I painted our entire basement in those two weeks and I basically hated the basement by the time I was done. I still feel a little bitterness everytime I walk down there. Lesson- if you are finishing your basement, just pay somebody to paint when you’re that close to the end. We did do some fun things like head to Lagoon and the pool a few times.
On the last day of my time off I got a call that would change my life so to speak. My old friend Simon called me and offered me a job at Backcountry.com. He had worked with me at KPMG and needed somebody to fill a new position opening up. We discussed it a bit and I agreed to meet with him to discuss it more, but I really didn’t feel like I’d end up taking it as I had my mind set on making the big “Manager” level at KPMG. I had even fielded a few other offers previously but had always stayed loyal to KPMG and my original goal out of college. But I did feel good about this job after hearing more so I went down the path of applying and seeing what happened.
July- Once back to the grind, I had this offer in the back of my mind, but it was a slow-developing process and plus, if it didn’t work out, I wasn’t looking to leave KPMG so I wanted to keep doing a good job. Up to Washington I went just like the previous two years. I actually grew to love the Tri-Cities area and even could live there. Beautiful Columbia River, all the stuff you need, good people. The weeks up there were the same as always; eating out at the same restaurants on the same routine every week and working all day. I even snuck in a couple drives up there which I always enjoyed. It’s nice once in a while to pop in some books on tape and go on a long drive. Oregon was the most scenic by far, but I always loved finally seeing the lights of Tremonton on the way back, meaning I was coming back into my familiar territory.
August- I spend a week in Orlando in training and even run into a couple old friends down there that worked in other offices. On the last night there, I get the call with an official offer from Backcountry. I talk it over with Rachel, it feels right, and I accept the next day. What a whirlwind and one of the biggest paradigm shifts I’ve ever experienced. Where coming out of college I was locked in to public accounting for life, suddenly I’m off to work for an outdoor gear company in Park City of all places.
September- I turn 29. I have always loved the movie “City Slickers” and especially the scene where he tells the school kids about growing old “Your 20’s are a blur. You get to your 30’s and you think, ‘What happened to my 20’s?’” Well I’m just about finished with the blur.
October- Marathon day. Truly one of the highlight achievements of the year and my life. Reaching that goal opened my eyes that even things you think you couldn’t do you really can do if you just try and dedicate yourself. I’m hoping I can hone in that dedication on other goals I have for 2011.
November- BYU loses to Utah 17-16 in the final November Holy War for the foreseeable future. Jake Heaps played like a stud and I was pissed the coaches played to settle for a 40+ yard field goal. Weird year for BYU football. Lots of coaching blunders all over the place. Here’s hoping Bronco puts his head on straight and makes better decisions going into Independence.
December- My favorite thing this year was that we went to the Christmas Sing Along downtown at the Energy Solutions Arena. They had an orchestra play the music for everyone to sing along to and Jon Schmidt came out and performed a few songs as well. Really a fun event that I hope we keep going to from here on out.
“Santa” got Cannon a “motor” as he likes to call it. It’s a power-wheels Jeep! I know both Rachel and I ALWAYS had wanted one when we were young. It’s probably more of a summertime gift but he’s rode it a few times so far and loved it, and on the plus side Brooklyn loves going for rides with him too!
So here I am a year later with a new job, a big accomplishment under my belt, and a second kid. Lots of changes, but all good. Instead of toiling away working until past 10 pm every night these next few months, I’ll spend a couple hours in the evening with the kids and on good nights have both them and myself in bed by 10.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Marathon
The Yoga workout on P90X is one of the hardest workouts in my opinion. 90 minutes of trying to contort your body in ways that I absolutely can't do. However, you try your best and make it through. The first 45 minutes are the true grind going from downward dog to the warrior positions over and over. After the first 45 minutes there is a one minute transition before the final 45 minutes of easier poses. During that 1 minute rest period Tony Horton looks at the camera and tells you "Take in the fact that you just did that." Since crossing the finish line of the St. George Marathon yesterday around 1 pm, that's pretty much the only thing I can think.
Rachel and I went on a cruise last year in August with some of our friends. I gained about 10-15 pounds during that week from eating nonstop and carried that through the end of the year being in the absolute worst physical condition of my life. I look at the pictures from our cruise and I am absolutely disgusting. While I've only lost about 20 lbs in actual weight since then, my body composition is obviously much better, and yet there is still about 50-75 lbs worth of improvement I can make. Anyway, I bring it up to help myself realize what a crazy year it's been. Definitely the year of the run for me. With my first half marathon in April and now this, I've been running consistently since February and culminate with the St. George Marathon. I'm hopeful that I keep up the habit to some extent, but I will look to start doing some other types of exercises as well since I've avoided everything but running due to the training "focus" all year.
My time certainly wasn't spectacular: 6:02.39 was the official time posted in the paper today in St. George, but my entire goal was to simply finish and I did just that. In fact, even though it was a slow pace, which I planned on, it was probably the best run I've ever had. I plowed all the way to mile 22 on a good system right to plan before I ran out of gas and had to walk/shuffle the final 4 miles. Even when walking I was still shuffling pretty quick, kind of a imitation run I guess. I used a book called "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" by David Whitsett, Forrest Dolgener, and Tanjala Kole, which I highly recommend to any first timers. The key focus is to train for and finish a marathon. They emphasize not setting a time goal since the accomplishment itself is the goal. Time goals can be set for future marathons once you "know" what you're getting into. There are also a lot of mental trainings they like you to do to help your focus and positive outlook on finishing the race. I feel these things are all important for sure. I never doubted from start to finish whether I was going to finish. I knew the entire way. People asked when did I hit "the wall". I'm not sure if I did or not. My understanding of "the wall" was the feeling of exhaustion and a mental thought of "I absolutely can't go any farther". I can definitely say I truly started to slow down and walk more than I planned on around mile 22, but I never doubted finishing at all. In fact, at mile 18 I was right on pace for where I thought I would be and it pumped me up to know I was entering uncharted territory and I was definitely going to finish. My mental timeframe from the beginning was 6 hours since that is the rough time frame of the race, and I was within 2 1/2 minutes of that time, pretty good pace throughout if you ask me.
Coming around the corner for the last quarter mile was an incredible feeling. My buddy Jeff Davis made his wife and son wait three hours after seeing his dad finish just to see me come around the corner. When you've been all alone on the journey, it's awesome to see a friendly face give you the final push. My mother-in-law was on the side just a short bit later with a "go b-ball" poster and Rachel, Kamille, and Cannon were right at the finish line with posters for me too (Grant was taking care of Brooklyn for all of us). What a feeling.
Thanks to my sweet sister Jackie for trying to challenge me back in February to run with her. It got me off my butt and doing something to get active again. The St. George Marathon is a lottery and if you don't get in the first 2 times you are guaranteed in the third year. I told her after the half marathon in April, "You know, if I could keep running relatively consistently for the next couple years I think in three years I'd be ready for a marathon. Go ahead and sign us up for St. George. I'm sure we won't get in this year so we can just start the process of the three year wait." Well, she did something funny when she registered us because I got in and she didn't, but in any case I was able to accomplish this year what I originally thought would take three years to build up to. It's amazing what your body can do when you push it. Maybe in three years we'll just actually run one together. . . with the Rache Train too!
Rachel and I went on a cruise last year in August with some of our friends. I gained about 10-15 pounds during that week from eating nonstop and carried that through the end of the year being in the absolute worst physical condition of my life. I look at the pictures from our cruise and I am absolutely disgusting. While I've only lost about 20 lbs in actual weight since then, my body composition is obviously much better, and yet there is still about 50-75 lbs worth of improvement I can make. Anyway, I bring it up to help myself realize what a crazy year it's been. Definitely the year of the run for me. With my first half marathon in April and now this, I've been running consistently since February and culminate with the St. George Marathon. I'm hopeful that I keep up the habit to some extent, but I will look to start doing some other types of exercises as well since I've avoided everything but running due to the training "focus" all year.
My time certainly wasn't spectacular: 6:02.39 was the official time posted in the paper today in St. George, but my entire goal was to simply finish and I did just that. In fact, even though it was a slow pace, which I planned on, it was probably the best run I've ever had. I plowed all the way to mile 22 on a good system right to plan before I ran out of gas and had to walk/shuffle the final 4 miles. Even when walking I was still shuffling pretty quick, kind of a imitation run I guess. I used a book called "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" by David Whitsett, Forrest Dolgener, and Tanjala Kole, which I highly recommend to any first timers. The key focus is to train for and finish a marathon. They emphasize not setting a time goal since the accomplishment itself is the goal. Time goals can be set for future marathons once you "know" what you're getting into. There are also a lot of mental trainings they like you to do to help your focus and positive outlook on finishing the race. I feel these things are all important for sure. I never doubted from start to finish whether I was going to finish. I knew the entire way. People asked when did I hit "the wall". I'm not sure if I did or not. My understanding of "the wall" was the feeling of exhaustion and a mental thought of "I absolutely can't go any farther". I can definitely say I truly started to slow down and walk more than I planned on around mile 22, but I never doubted finishing at all. In fact, at mile 18 I was right on pace for where I thought I would be and it pumped me up to know I was entering uncharted territory and I was definitely going to finish. My mental timeframe from the beginning was 6 hours since that is the rough time frame of the race, and I was within 2 1/2 minutes of that time, pretty good pace throughout if you ask me.
Coming around the corner for the last quarter mile was an incredible feeling. My buddy Jeff Davis made his wife and son wait three hours after seeing his dad finish just to see me come around the corner. When you've been all alone on the journey, it's awesome to see a friendly face give you the final push. My mother-in-law was on the side just a short bit later with a "go b-ball" poster and Rachel, Kamille, and Cannon were right at the finish line with posters for me too (Grant was taking care of Brooklyn for all of us). What a feeling.
Thanks to my sweet sister Jackie for trying to challenge me back in February to run with her. It got me off my butt and doing something to get active again. The St. George Marathon is a lottery and if you don't get in the first 2 times you are guaranteed in the third year. I told her after the half marathon in April, "You know, if I could keep running relatively consistently for the next couple years I think in three years I'd be ready for a marathon. Go ahead and sign us up for St. George. I'm sure we won't get in this year so we can just start the process of the three year wait." Well, she did something funny when she registered us because I got in and she didn't, but in any case I was able to accomplish this year what I originally thought would take three years to build up to. It's amazing what your body can do when you push it. Maybe in three years we'll just actually run one together. . . with the Rache Train too!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Farewell to KPMG
So after 2 years, 8 months of pure grind, I accepted a new job offer and am leaving KPMG. Words can’t express the joy my wife feels, but I can certainly express some “greatest hits” if you will, in no particular order. Warning-this will take a while:
Copies- After returning from my new hire training and filling in for a few days on a job, my first “real” job was to be shipped up to Seattle for two weeks. My first day? I was lead to a 3 foot stack of paper and told to make copies of all of it. “Think of it as a rite of passage” my senior said. I had to unstaple, copy, re-staple the originals, collate and staple and punch the copies, and do it again. . . for 10 hours. My legs were killing me from standing all day long at the copy machine (I can’t think of a time before or since that I’ve stood in one place for so long). I was thinking all day long “I can’t believe I went to school for five years to do THIS!” True, in a way of sorts it was a good rite of passage, but it still sucked.
Woo’s Teriyaki- So my first year up in Washington I keep ordering the hot at my favorite Mongolian restaurant, Three Flames. So my manager Dan Rinehart tells me about the famous Woo’s Teriyaki, a small Chinese restaurant in Richland famous for it’s hot food. I tell him I’m up to the heat so we should go try it. We go to dinner one night, the waitress comes over to take our order.
“I want the teriyaki chicken, hot.” I say. She pauses, looks me up and down, and responds, “Have you had our hot?” Me-“No, why? Is it really that hot?” Her-“Where else have you eaten around here?” I respond the Mongolian restaurant up the street and I handle the hot there just fine. Her response: “See my friend the waitress over there? When she goes to the Mongolian she gets seven scoops of the hot. She can only handle the medium here.”
I sit back and try to take in what she has just told me; clearly a warning for any novice spicy-food eater. “I’ll take the hot”.
As soon as the chicken touched my lips I knew it was a bad call. Easily, and I mean by a wide margin, the hottest food I have ever had in my life (or will ever have for that matter). I put down about ½ of my order but couldn’t actually eat the entire thing. The waitress offered to take it to the back and rinse the chicken in some water to dull the heat. Clearly defeated, I denied the offer and just left the remaining chicken to waste and paid my bill. That was the first and last time I ate at Woo’s.
Speeding Ticket- I drove up to Washington once in a while during my summers of traveling every week. Being a 10 hour or so drive, you would assume you would want to make as good as time as possible. So one time I leave home around 3, get up to Brigham City/Tremonton area and hit a massive, unexpected storm that closes down the freeway for over an hour. So I’m sitting there parked on the freeway fuming mad at how much time I’m losing. So what do I do? Of course I try to “make up” time by speeding furiously the rest of the way up; well, furiously the rest of the way until I pass a black police car in the dead of night in Oregon. I had basically passed right in front of him before I saw him, and I immediately pulled over to the right lane and prepared to be pulled over because I was flying. Turns out he let me off extremely easy because I thought the speed limit was 75 since it was rural Oregon and the speed limit is actually 65 max throughout all of Oregon. When I called in to the county to pay the ticket the lady knocked the fee down another $100 so the pain wasn’t too brutal. Every time I drive through Oregon since that experience the speedometer hasn’t topped 65, not even your standard 5 miles over.
Triceraballs- So I’ve been with the firm like 3 months, all through busy season, and all I want to do is go play basketball with my friends on Wednesday night like we always do. I tell my Senior, “My wife gives me crap about playing ball every week and now you want to give me crap! Look, I don’t care what I have to do all I want to do is play basketball on Wednesday night I don’t care what the consequences!” He relents and allows me to go; I subsequently fill the rest of the day talking up about what a great baller I am. I actually for the only time in my life have a great night playing basketball, hitting a number of 3-point shots. So I come in the next morning to the audit room and the rest of the team is already there. “Call me 3-ball!” I announce with pride, referring of course to my great night of shooting 3-pointers; however, it was not understood as such. “3-ball? What is that supposed to mean?” The conversation quickly turns toward the gutter and heavy inquisition takes place regarding their way of understanding my “announcement”. They quickly modify the nickname through various revisions, settling on “triceraballs”. I receive a nice picture in my email later that day with a triceratops that has punctured 3 basketballs, which of course, triceratops had punctured in his self-defense against 3-ballasaurus Rex. I tried to watch what I said the rest of the engagement but I always found myself in compromising positions.
Dork Mormon from Utah- visiting the national trainings is quite the experience if you live in the bubble, which we obviously all do. My favorite example is the training I went to last year in Dallas. On Friday during the final class, we were organized into new groups for some reason. So the instructor decided to go around the room and have everybody introduce themselves, what office they are from, and “tell us what you did last night”. There were about 50-55 people in the room. Person after person stood up to tell about the insane experience last night of going to the biggest bar in Dallas and how they “rode the bull”. It was a wild party and everybody could nod in agreement as each person shared their sweet night of riding the mechanical bull. It comes to be my turn, I stand up and relate “I’m Brandon Ball from the Salt Lake City office, and last night I stayed in my hotel room and watched the NBA Draft.” I’m pretty sure the crowd knew something semi-lame was coming out of my mouth when they heard “Salt Lake City”. While I am who I am, it makes me laugh. For what it’s worth, we drafted Eric Maynor and traded him like 3 months later.
All-nighter- I only pulled one official “all-nighter” during my time at KPMG, and even then it ended for me at about 4:30 in the morning, at which time I went home and slept for a couple hours before going back to work. I do remember from about 1-3 a.m. playing Rage Against the Machine on my computer for a couple hours. The Senior, who requested I play Rage, says after, “Well, now I remember why it’s been so long since I’ve listened to Rage”, of course referring to not liking the heavy screaming, etc. My response, “Funny, I was just thinking to myself about what a shame it is that I haven’t listened to Rage in so long” of course referring to how awesome Rage is. In case you’re wondering, that was the last time I listened to Rage.
Waterfast- So last busy season instead of having a “get fat” competition my team had a weight loss competition. Somehow, someway I started running at like midnight, outside in the cold, a few times a week. I also basically stopped eating dinner, thereby dropping my calorie count for the day drastically. We also had healthy snacks instead of complete sugar crap (with the exception of a large tub of jelly-belly’s). I had quite a few “blow days”, pretty much anytime a good lunch was offered or some other treat was offered, but I got to the final couple days within 5 pounds of my 20 pound weight loss goal. The due date was Wednesday, but on Monday I had a good lunch offer and decided I was giving up on the goal (worth $100 to me, but I was giving it up for a lunch, awesome). So I eat my lunch, which I don’t even remember what it was but I’m sure it was good, and I regret it in the afternoon, thinking “I could’ve made the goal if I just had some discipline!” I decide at that point that I’m going on a water-fast for the next 36 hours and dropping down 3-5 lbs to make my weight. I can tell you every temptation in the book was thrown at me over the next 36 hours, but I had nothing but water (and a lot of trips to the restroom) and woke up Wednesday morning at my goal. I still have the picture of the official weigh-in on my phone. I took the $100 and promptly gained back my 5 lbs. I am happy to say I’ve stayed at that weight though and haven’t put back on the remaining 15, for now.
Wings- Jackson’s sports bar up in Washington has all-you-can-eat wings on Wednesday nights. The first time I heard about it, I knew it would become a staple. For the rest of the travel year last year we hit up Jackson’s at least every other week (when you’re eating all you can eat wings and realize how much chicken you just ate after the fact, it usually takes longer than one week to get over it). On one of our final visits for the year in October, the waitress initiated our visit by pointing me out and saying “I know you love the golden garlic wings I’ll get an order ready for you”. While she was correct in noting my favorite flavor, I took due note that we had officially eaten there too many times that summer, considering she had never been our waitress before. At 25 wings I feel like you “made your money” since that was essentially the same price on other nights as the cost on the all-you-can-eat night. My personal record was 45 wings but a couple other guys tied and/or beat me in the overall standings. Their hottest sauce, “Atomic” isn’t quite the burner of Woo’s teriyaki but definitely leaves you reaching for the water. I would usually have just one Atomic wing last to say I did it, but other than that, stick with the Golden Garlic.
“Emily”- So my office always sends out a “farewell” email to let the rest of the office know who’s leaving to what new job, etc. So mine comes out this week and the final paragraph says “We wish Brandon, Emily, and their two children the best of luck. . . “ So I’m not sure who Emily is, but Rachel sure had a great response, typical of wives of public accountants, “I KNEW YOU HAD A MISTRESS!”
I’m out!
Copies- After returning from my new hire training and filling in for a few days on a job, my first “real” job was to be shipped up to Seattle for two weeks. My first day? I was lead to a 3 foot stack of paper and told to make copies of all of it. “Think of it as a rite of passage” my senior said. I had to unstaple, copy, re-staple the originals, collate and staple and punch the copies, and do it again. . . for 10 hours. My legs were killing me from standing all day long at the copy machine (I can’t think of a time before or since that I’ve stood in one place for so long). I was thinking all day long “I can’t believe I went to school for five years to do THIS!” True, in a way of sorts it was a good rite of passage, but it still sucked.
Woo’s Teriyaki- So my first year up in Washington I keep ordering the hot at my favorite Mongolian restaurant, Three Flames. So my manager Dan Rinehart tells me about the famous Woo’s Teriyaki, a small Chinese restaurant in Richland famous for it’s hot food. I tell him I’m up to the heat so we should go try it. We go to dinner one night, the waitress comes over to take our order.
“I want the teriyaki chicken, hot.” I say. She pauses, looks me up and down, and responds, “Have you had our hot?” Me-“No, why? Is it really that hot?” Her-“Where else have you eaten around here?” I respond the Mongolian restaurant up the street and I handle the hot there just fine. Her response: “See my friend the waitress over there? When she goes to the Mongolian she gets seven scoops of the hot. She can only handle the medium here.”
I sit back and try to take in what she has just told me; clearly a warning for any novice spicy-food eater. “I’ll take the hot”.
As soon as the chicken touched my lips I knew it was a bad call. Easily, and I mean by a wide margin, the hottest food I have ever had in my life (or will ever have for that matter). I put down about ½ of my order but couldn’t actually eat the entire thing. The waitress offered to take it to the back and rinse the chicken in some water to dull the heat. Clearly defeated, I denied the offer and just left the remaining chicken to waste and paid my bill. That was the first and last time I ate at Woo’s.
Speeding Ticket- I drove up to Washington once in a while during my summers of traveling every week. Being a 10 hour or so drive, you would assume you would want to make as good as time as possible. So one time I leave home around 3, get up to Brigham City/Tremonton area and hit a massive, unexpected storm that closes down the freeway for over an hour. So I’m sitting there parked on the freeway fuming mad at how much time I’m losing. So what do I do? Of course I try to “make up” time by speeding furiously the rest of the way up; well, furiously the rest of the way until I pass a black police car in the dead of night in Oregon. I had basically passed right in front of him before I saw him, and I immediately pulled over to the right lane and prepared to be pulled over because I was flying. Turns out he let me off extremely easy because I thought the speed limit was 75 since it was rural Oregon and the speed limit is actually 65 max throughout all of Oregon. When I called in to the county to pay the ticket the lady knocked the fee down another $100 so the pain wasn’t too brutal. Every time I drive through Oregon since that experience the speedometer hasn’t topped 65, not even your standard 5 miles over.
Triceraballs- So I’ve been with the firm like 3 months, all through busy season, and all I want to do is go play basketball with my friends on Wednesday night like we always do. I tell my Senior, “My wife gives me crap about playing ball every week and now you want to give me crap! Look, I don’t care what I have to do all I want to do is play basketball on Wednesday night I don’t care what the consequences!” He relents and allows me to go; I subsequently fill the rest of the day talking up about what a great baller I am. I actually for the only time in my life have a great night playing basketball, hitting a number of 3-point shots. So I come in the next morning to the audit room and the rest of the team is already there. “Call me 3-ball!” I announce with pride, referring of course to my great night of shooting 3-pointers; however, it was not understood as such. “3-ball? What is that supposed to mean?” The conversation quickly turns toward the gutter and heavy inquisition takes place regarding their way of understanding my “announcement”. They quickly modify the nickname through various revisions, settling on “triceraballs”. I receive a nice picture in my email later that day with a triceratops that has punctured 3 basketballs, which of course, triceratops had punctured in his self-defense against 3-ballasaurus Rex. I tried to watch what I said the rest of the engagement but I always found myself in compromising positions.
Dork Mormon from Utah- visiting the national trainings is quite the experience if you live in the bubble, which we obviously all do. My favorite example is the training I went to last year in Dallas. On Friday during the final class, we were organized into new groups for some reason. So the instructor decided to go around the room and have everybody introduce themselves, what office they are from, and “tell us what you did last night”. There were about 50-55 people in the room. Person after person stood up to tell about the insane experience last night of going to the biggest bar in Dallas and how they “rode the bull”. It was a wild party and everybody could nod in agreement as each person shared their sweet night of riding the mechanical bull. It comes to be my turn, I stand up and relate “I’m Brandon Ball from the Salt Lake City office, and last night I stayed in my hotel room and watched the NBA Draft.” I’m pretty sure the crowd knew something semi-lame was coming out of my mouth when they heard “Salt Lake City”. While I am who I am, it makes me laugh. For what it’s worth, we drafted Eric Maynor and traded him like 3 months later.
All-nighter- I only pulled one official “all-nighter” during my time at KPMG, and even then it ended for me at about 4:30 in the morning, at which time I went home and slept for a couple hours before going back to work. I do remember from about 1-3 a.m. playing Rage Against the Machine on my computer for a couple hours. The Senior, who requested I play Rage, says after, “Well, now I remember why it’s been so long since I’ve listened to Rage”, of course referring to not liking the heavy screaming, etc. My response, “Funny, I was just thinking to myself about what a shame it is that I haven’t listened to Rage in so long” of course referring to how awesome Rage is. In case you’re wondering, that was the last time I listened to Rage.
Waterfast- So last busy season instead of having a “get fat” competition my team had a weight loss competition. Somehow, someway I started running at like midnight, outside in the cold, a few times a week. I also basically stopped eating dinner, thereby dropping my calorie count for the day drastically. We also had healthy snacks instead of complete sugar crap (with the exception of a large tub of jelly-belly’s). I had quite a few “blow days”, pretty much anytime a good lunch was offered or some other treat was offered, but I got to the final couple days within 5 pounds of my 20 pound weight loss goal. The due date was Wednesday, but on Monday I had a good lunch offer and decided I was giving up on the goal (worth $100 to me, but I was giving it up for a lunch, awesome). So I eat my lunch, which I don’t even remember what it was but I’m sure it was good, and I regret it in the afternoon, thinking “I could’ve made the goal if I just had some discipline!” I decide at that point that I’m going on a water-fast for the next 36 hours and dropping down 3-5 lbs to make my weight. I can tell you every temptation in the book was thrown at me over the next 36 hours, but I had nothing but water (and a lot of trips to the restroom) and woke up Wednesday morning at my goal. I still have the picture of the official weigh-in on my phone. I took the $100 and promptly gained back my 5 lbs. I am happy to say I’ve stayed at that weight though and haven’t put back on the remaining 15, for now.
Wings- Jackson’s sports bar up in Washington has all-you-can-eat wings on Wednesday nights. The first time I heard about it, I knew it would become a staple. For the rest of the travel year last year we hit up Jackson’s at least every other week (when you’re eating all you can eat wings and realize how much chicken you just ate after the fact, it usually takes longer than one week to get over it). On one of our final visits for the year in October, the waitress initiated our visit by pointing me out and saying “I know you love the golden garlic wings I’ll get an order ready for you”. While she was correct in noting my favorite flavor, I took due note that we had officially eaten there too many times that summer, considering she had never been our waitress before. At 25 wings I feel like you “made your money” since that was essentially the same price on other nights as the cost on the all-you-can-eat night. My personal record was 45 wings but a couple other guys tied and/or beat me in the overall standings. Their hottest sauce, “Atomic” isn’t quite the burner of Woo’s teriyaki but definitely leaves you reaching for the water. I would usually have just one Atomic wing last to say I did it, but other than that, stick with the Golden Garlic.
“Emily”- So my office always sends out a “farewell” email to let the rest of the office know who’s leaving to what new job, etc. So mine comes out this week and the final paragraph says “We wish Brandon, Emily, and their two children the best of luck. . . “ So I’m not sure who Emily is, but Rachel sure had a great response, typical of wives of public accountants, “I KNEW YOU HAD A MISTRESS!”
I’m out!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Adventures in Running-Idaho Style
So I had quite the unusual experience running a couple weeks ago. It had to be either the highlight or lowlight of my sweet marathon training. I’m probably going to go with lowlight.
We were staying up in Idaho for Rachel’s family reunion, the Super Sweet Stewart family reunion! I’m at the point in my marathon training where I take quite the long run on Saturday mornings as part of this training to actually move my fat body over 26.2 miles. So I let Rachel know that Saturday morning I’ll have to join the festivities a tad late due to my run, scheduled for 14 miles. I tell her “I’m just going to leave your Aunt’s house where we are staying, run out 7 miles, and run back.” Rachel has a bright idea, “Why don’t you just run from Diane’s house to my Grandma’s house? I bet that is pretty close to 14 miles. Then I won’t have to come back and pick you up when you’re done.” So Rachel’s aunt lives in Ammon up on the mountain and her Grandma lives in Shelley. I was reluctant to take on the challenge primarily because most of the way would be country road with no water fountain or even a gas station to pick up a drink. I express my concern with my sweet wife and she gives me the stare of “just do what I say”. So I make plans to stop at the “last outpost” Maverik about 8 miles into the run to buy a couple Gatorades.
So I wake up early on Saturday morning and head out for the run. My first 8 miles are pretty much straight down Sunnyside, which is a main road in Idaho Falls. It’s actually quite the nice morning and the path along Sunnyside is ideal. I’m feelin’ good and have a good groove going. Rachel stops by about 90 minutes in to check on me on the way to her Grandmas, I’m feeling good and wave her off. I get down to the end of Sunnyside and head into the Maverik drenched in sweat to buy my couple Gatorades.
Quick tangent: so inside the Mav in front of me in line a “young adult” (a dude about 21 years old, at what age do I have to reach to call him a “kid”?) tries to buy 3 mountain dews and a couple huge bags of sunflower seeds with a welfare credit card and the lady tells him they don’t accept the card. He freaks out on her and storms out, apparently thinking that screaming curse words all over the place will make the lady change the store policy. Now, soda and sunflower seeds are a step up from beer and cigarettes but come on aren’ t welfare funds supposed to be used for actual food necessities like milk, eggs, bread, etc? Applause to Maverik if that’s their policy and not a state-mandated item. End Tangent J
So I leave the Mav with a huge Gatorade in each hand and a little under 6 miles to go. I look down the long highway and realize there is nowhere to run! The first couple miles of the country highway have turned into a 4 lane road; there is no shoulder to run on, and right off the road on both sides are monster weeds. I certainly don’t want to run in the road with 60-mph traffic coming down the pipe at me. What do I do? I improvise. Off the road 30 feet is a railroad track that does have some space on the side of it. I start down the track. The space is extremely rocky and uneven but I’m chugging along. I get another 2 miles down and finally see that on one side of the road the weeds have gone away and it’s just field on the side of the road; off the road, but manageable to run on. I cross the road to take my chances with the field instead of breaking my ankle on the train track.
Rachel’s aunt Diane stops by to check on me, I move her along. A few minutes later her uncle Garth stops and gives me a water bottle. I chug it down and he pulls away. Right after he pulls away, things get interesting. . .
I see a Bonneville County Sherriff car coming down the road and for some reason I know he’s going to turn on his lights and “pull” me over. He does just that. I can envision what he must have been thinking when he got out of the car and sized me up, “Fat dude, holding 2 gatorades and a water bottle, funny leg things on (I wear leg sleeves on my long runs because I have calf-cramping problems), all that’s missing is a helmet”.
Cop-“What are you doing?”
Me-” Um, I’m running down the road.” Duh! Honestly I know it’s just a conversation starter but what does it look like I’m doing?
Cop-“OK, Where are you headed?” I’m sure at this point he’s expecting something like “Down the street one more block” or “Just to that building over there” Remember I’m officially in Idaho Falls at this point.
Me-“Shelley” If you aren’t familiar with Idaho Falls, it’s like he pulled me over in South Jordan and instead of saying “I’m headed to a buddy’s house a couple blocks down” I respond “I’m going to Sandy!”
Cop-“What?! That’s really far, where did you come from?”
Me-“Well, up on that mountain over there”
Now the cop is confused and is thinking that it might not all be there upstairs. Cop-“What do you mean you came from up on the mountain? Are you ok?”
So now it’s time to go with the full-background explanation approach. Me-“ Look, I’m from out of town and I’m here for a family reunion but I’m training for a marathon and I had to do a long run today and I’m staying up on the mountain with a family member but I had to go down to Shelley for the family reunion this morning so for the long training run I just decided I would run from where I’m staying to where I need to be”. And that crazy run-on sentence is about as crazy as he thought I was.
This is the point where I know the cop thought I might not have it all there mentally. Cop-“Son, Who is going to take care of you once you get to Shelley?”
Holy Crap! I JUST EXPLAINED that my ENTIRE set of in-laws, including my wife and kids, are over at Shelley. What do you mean who’s going to take care of me? I’m not sure how to proceed; am I going to get a ticket? Arrested? What the crap did I do wrong? Me-“My WIFE is in Shelley and ALL of my in-laws are there too to take care of me once I get there. I’M JUST RUNNING DOWN THE ROAD DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG OR SOMETHING?!” Obviously I’m getting frustrated at this point and he’s thinking I’m more and more not with it. Cop-“Were you running on the train tracks?”
Bingo. Should’ve known somebody would think I was a wacko and call the cops for running along the tracks.
Me-“Oh yeah. I was. There was no room to run on the side of the road for those first couple miles so I ran on the tracks. I’m not wearing headphones so I could hear a train and obviously look around and see a train. You can see I got off and crossed over when this side of the road turned to field. “
So during this nice chat Rachel’s uncle Garth saw the cop pull me over after he pulled away. He turned around and came back to check what was going on. I think when he pulled up the cop didn’t believe me when I said I knew him.
Cop-“You’re not in trouble I’m just really confused at why you’d want to go that far” I’m thinking if I actually looked like a runner it would’ve been a little different.
Me-“It’s fine I’m done I’ll just go with him.” I had gone about 9.5-10 miles so it was a good long run, just not the whole way but by then I had lost my mojo and was disheartened by the stop. I don’t want to give away too much but from my experience as a teenager, whenever cops get involved, you get out of there! So I jumped in with Garth to get a ride the rest of the way. I don’t think the cop had anything on me, but I could also tell that he was going to follow me along the road the remaining 4 miles and I wasn’t cool with that.
Anyway, I arrive at the family reunion to great fanfare and share the great tale of the cop who didn’t like my running style. While it gave a good laugh to the family for the day, I was still disappointed that I couldn’t convince him that I was a marathoner! Well, I guess I’m not yet, so next time I’m back up in Idaho after the October marathon I’ll have to go for a long run down some train tracks. On second thought, maybe not.
We were staying up in Idaho for Rachel’s family reunion, the Super Sweet Stewart family reunion! I’m at the point in my marathon training where I take quite the long run on Saturday mornings as part of this training to actually move my fat body over 26.2 miles. So I let Rachel know that Saturday morning I’ll have to join the festivities a tad late due to my run, scheduled for 14 miles. I tell her “I’m just going to leave your Aunt’s house where we are staying, run out 7 miles, and run back.” Rachel has a bright idea, “Why don’t you just run from Diane’s house to my Grandma’s house? I bet that is pretty close to 14 miles. Then I won’t have to come back and pick you up when you’re done.” So Rachel’s aunt lives in Ammon up on the mountain and her Grandma lives in Shelley. I was reluctant to take on the challenge primarily because most of the way would be country road with no water fountain or even a gas station to pick up a drink. I express my concern with my sweet wife and she gives me the stare of “just do what I say”. So I make plans to stop at the “last outpost” Maverik about 8 miles into the run to buy a couple Gatorades.
So I wake up early on Saturday morning and head out for the run. My first 8 miles are pretty much straight down Sunnyside, which is a main road in Idaho Falls. It’s actually quite the nice morning and the path along Sunnyside is ideal. I’m feelin’ good and have a good groove going. Rachel stops by about 90 minutes in to check on me on the way to her Grandmas, I’m feeling good and wave her off. I get down to the end of Sunnyside and head into the Maverik drenched in sweat to buy my couple Gatorades.
Quick tangent: so inside the Mav in front of me in line a “young adult” (a dude about 21 years old, at what age do I have to reach to call him a “kid”?) tries to buy 3 mountain dews and a couple huge bags of sunflower seeds with a welfare credit card and the lady tells him they don’t accept the card. He freaks out on her and storms out, apparently thinking that screaming curse words all over the place will make the lady change the store policy. Now, soda and sunflower seeds are a step up from beer and cigarettes but come on aren’ t welfare funds supposed to be used for actual food necessities like milk, eggs, bread, etc? Applause to Maverik if that’s their policy and not a state-mandated item. End Tangent J
So I leave the Mav with a huge Gatorade in each hand and a little under 6 miles to go. I look down the long highway and realize there is nowhere to run! The first couple miles of the country highway have turned into a 4 lane road; there is no shoulder to run on, and right off the road on both sides are monster weeds. I certainly don’t want to run in the road with 60-mph traffic coming down the pipe at me. What do I do? I improvise. Off the road 30 feet is a railroad track that does have some space on the side of it. I start down the track. The space is extremely rocky and uneven but I’m chugging along. I get another 2 miles down and finally see that on one side of the road the weeds have gone away and it’s just field on the side of the road; off the road, but manageable to run on. I cross the road to take my chances with the field instead of breaking my ankle on the train track.
Rachel’s aunt Diane stops by to check on me, I move her along. A few minutes later her uncle Garth stops and gives me a water bottle. I chug it down and he pulls away. Right after he pulls away, things get interesting. . .
I see a Bonneville County Sherriff car coming down the road and for some reason I know he’s going to turn on his lights and “pull” me over. He does just that. I can envision what he must have been thinking when he got out of the car and sized me up, “Fat dude, holding 2 gatorades and a water bottle, funny leg things on (I wear leg sleeves on my long runs because I have calf-cramping problems), all that’s missing is a helmet”.
Cop-“What are you doing?”
Me-” Um, I’m running down the road.” Duh! Honestly I know it’s just a conversation starter but what does it look like I’m doing?
Cop-“OK, Where are you headed?” I’m sure at this point he’s expecting something like “Down the street one more block” or “Just to that building over there” Remember I’m officially in Idaho Falls at this point.
Me-“Shelley” If you aren’t familiar with Idaho Falls, it’s like he pulled me over in South Jordan and instead of saying “I’m headed to a buddy’s house a couple blocks down” I respond “I’m going to Sandy!”
Cop-“What?! That’s really far, where did you come from?”
Me-“Well, up on that mountain over there”
Now the cop is confused and is thinking that it might not all be there upstairs. Cop-“What do you mean you came from up on the mountain? Are you ok?”
So now it’s time to go with the full-background explanation approach. Me-“ Look, I’m from out of town and I’m here for a family reunion but I’m training for a marathon and I had to do a long run today and I’m staying up on the mountain with a family member but I had to go down to Shelley for the family reunion this morning so for the long training run I just decided I would run from where I’m staying to where I need to be”. And that crazy run-on sentence is about as crazy as he thought I was.
This is the point where I know the cop thought I might not have it all there mentally. Cop-“Son, Who is going to take care of you once you get to Shelley?”
Holy Crap! I JUST EXPLAINED that my ENTIRE set of in-laws, including my wife and kids, are over at Shelley. What do you mean who’s going to take care of me? I’m not sure how to proceed; am I going to get a ticket? Arrested? What the crap did I do wrong? Me-“My WIFE is in Shelley and ALL of my in-laws are there too to take care of me once I get there. I’M JUST RUNNING DOWN THE ROAD DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG OR SOMETHING?!” Obviously I’m getting frustrated at this point and he’s thinking I’m more and more not with it. Cop-“Were you running on the train tracks?”
Bingo. Should’ve known somebody would think I was a wacko and call the cops for running along the tracks.
Me-“Oh yeah. I was. There was no room to run on the side of the road for those first couple miles so I ran on the tracks. I’m not wearing headphones so I could hear a train and obviously look around and see a train. You can see I got off and crossed over when this side of the road turned to field. “
So during this nice chat Rachel’s uncle Garth saw the cop pull me over after he pulled away. He turned around and came back to check what was going on. I think when he pulled up the cop didn’t believe me when I said I knew him.
Cop-“You’re not in trouble I’m just really confused at why you’d want to go that far” I’m thinking if I actually looked like a runner it would’ve been a little different.
Me-“It’s fine I’m done I’ll just go with him.” I had gone about 9.5-10 miles so it was a good long run, just not the whole way but by then I had lost my mojo and was disheartened by the stop. I don’t want to give away too much but from my experience as a teenager, whenever cops get involved, you get out of there! So I jumped in with Garth to get a ride the rest of the way. I don’t think the cop had anything on me, but I could also tell that he was going to follow me along the road the remaining 4 miles and I wasn’t cool with that.
Anyway, I arrive at the family reunion to great fanfare and share the great tale of the cop who didn’t like my running style. While it gave a good laugh to the family for the day, I was still disappointed that I couldn’t convince him that I was a marathoner! Well, I guess I’m not yet, so next time I’m back up in Idaho after the October marathon I’ll have to go for a long run down some train tracks. On second thought, maybe not.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
U to the Pac-10. . . Sucks (for me)
I don't know how any BYU fan alive can positively spin Utah going to the Pac-10 while we stay back and find ourselves stuck in the Mountain West. From all the smack I've heard from U-fans in the past few days, all I have been able to do is hang my head and say, "Congratulations". What can we do? BYU got owned and I feel like there is nothing we can do about it. I'm not wallowing in the depths of despair like the football is cut from the school or something, but I do know in every discussion about BYU v. Utah we will now forever come up on the short end (unless some type of miracle occurs that takes us into the Big-12 at some point).
Why will we always come up short? It has been nationally announced that we are not "big-time" caliber. Yes, it has nothing to do with the quality of our football team, fan base, and "other sports" (seriously, we all know football is king). It has to do with political/religious factors that nobody can control. It still sucks. I think the rivalry takes a big step down due to this move. We could win the rivalry game every year and U fans can always play the Pac-10 card. "We are big-time, you are not", and there really isn't a comeback. It makes me not care about the rivalry as much as I always have when something more than "bragging rights" is usually on the line. I'm sure I'll still get pumped up every year when the game comes around, but even a win won't be as sweet. I'm even more happy looking back to know that I was at the final rivaly game in Provo where the U was still a part of the same conference as us.
While I'm certainly down and know the inevitable comments will come to switch allegiances, that is not going to happen! But I'm not an blue-goggled idiot, either. The switch is obviously huge for Utah and for the state, and if BYU was in that position we wouldn't think twice to make the move as well (I would also be just as bad throwing smack around if it was my team heading out).
I've taken the high-road so far and I know all I can say is congratulations to Utes who rub this in my face, but I do know this: for every person I see around town still wearing the "Max Hall Hates Me" t-shirts I will still be sure to let them know "I do too!".
Why will we always come up short? It has been nationally announced that we are not "big-time" caliber. Yes, it has nothing to do with the quality of our football team, fan base, and "other sports" (seriously, we all know football is king). It has to do with political/religious factors that nobody can control. It still sucks. I think the rivalry takes a big step down due to this move. We could win the rivalry game every year and U fans can always play the Pac-10 card. "We are big-time, you are not", and there really isn't a comeback. It makes me not care about the rivalry as much as I always have when something more than "bragging rights" is usually on the line. I'm sure I'll still get pumped up every year when the game comes around, but even a win won't be as sweet. I'm even more happy looking back to know that I was at the final rivaly game in Provo where the U was still a part of the same conference as us.
While I'm certainly down and know the inevitable comments will come to switch allegiances, that is not going to happen! But I'm not an blue-goggled idiot, either. The switch is obviously huge for Utah and for the state, and if BYU was in that position we wouldn't think twice to make the move as well (I would also be just as bad throwing smack around if it was my team heading out).
I've taken the high-road so far and I know all I can say is congratulations to Utes who rub this in my face, but I do know this: for every person I see around town still wearing the "Max Hall Hates Me" t-shirts I will still be sure to let them know "I do too!".
Friday, May 28, 2010
Born to Run
Born to Run is potentially a life-changing book for me, if I can act on everything I want to act on. I feel by getting in to the St. George marathon this fall I'm taking the first step. My sweet sister Jackie recommended this book to me and I'm forever in her debt for encouraging me to read it. Just thinking about the book makes me want to go for a run.
When I ran my first half marathon last month my feet were KILLING! Yes my legs were sore the next day but my feet hurt so bad I couldn't walk normal for over a week. But even with my feet killing, I was thinking to myself "I can't believe I actually did that. I need to step it up a do a full marathon sometime!" But the hurt feet part was definitely scaring me. Why would my feet hurt so bad from doing something that is supposedly natural, or is it? Well, it was something similar to destiny to get the book from Jackie and start reading right when my feet were in ultimate pain because Chris McDougall had the same thought: "Why do my feet hurt when I run?" And thus was the beginning of his journey. I started to read, and have been addicted to all things running ever since.
The book mostly is a story about the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico that routinely run 100 mile races, through the mountains, in homemade sandals. That story alone would make the book great, but I also loved reading about the history and science of running. Did you know that humans are indeed "born to run"? Did you know that running shoes essentially force humans to use improper form when running, thus causing the foot pain? Because of this book I've overhauld my running form to great results (meaning no foot pain) and I find myself looking at the form of virtually every person I see outside running (and notice pretty much 100% of the time that they are using incorrect form). Basically you're supposed to keep your legs under your body and land on the ball of your foot on each step. Running shoes "encourage" longer strides and striking your heel with each step, which is what I notice pretty much all runners doing and that is what causes the injuries. While I haven't abandoned shoes to go barefoot as the book encourages, I have altered my form and haven't had any foot pain since changing, even on long runs.
No I have not magically transformed into an elite runner or anything like that; in fact with my new form I'm slower than ever as I try to change the habit, but I am now to the point where I don't "fear" or "hate" a run, which is progress for sure. I think this book reads great. It's non-fiction but reads just like a story. Rachel kept asking me "are you done with that yet?" because I couldn't put it down. The book talks so routinely about ultra-marathoners (50-100 mile races, usually in mountains) that the thought of this St. George marathon in October seems a tad anti-climactic. Well, I certainly can't even sniff even a "regular" marathon at this point and I probably have about 50-100 lbs to lose, not 50-100 miles to run. In any case, I loved this book and am more stoked than ever to train for a marathon as a result of reading it.
When I ran my first half marathon last month my feet were KILLING! Yes my legs were sore the next day but my feet hurt so bad I couldn't walk normal for over a week. But even with my feet killing, I was thinking to myself "I can't believe I actually did that. I need to step it up a do a full marathon sometime!" But the hurt feet part was definitely scaring me. Why would my feet hurt so bad from doing something that is supposedly natural, or is it? Well, it was something similar to destiny to get the book from Jackie and start reading right when my feet were in ultimate pain because Chris McDougall had the same thought: "Why do my feet hurt when I run?" And thus was the beginning of his journey. I started to read, and have been addicted to all things running ever since.
The book mostly is a story about the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico that routinely run 100 mile races, through the mountains, in homemade sandals. That story alone would make the book great, but I also loved reading about the history and science of running. Did you know that humans are indeed "born to run"? Did you know that running shoes essentially force humans to use improper form when running, thus causing the foot pain? Because of this book I've overhauld my running form to great results (meaning no foot pain) and I find myself looking at the form of virtually every person I see outside running (and notice pretty much 100% of the time that they are using incorrect form). Basically you're supposed to keep your legs under your body and land on the ball of your foot on each step. Running shoes "encourage" longer strides and striking your heel with each step, which is what I notice pretty much all runners doing and that is what causes the injuries. While I haven't abandoned shoes to go barefoot as the book encourages, I have altered my form and haven't had any foot pain since changing, even on long runs.
No I have not magically transformed into an elite runner or anything like that; in fact with my new form I'm slower than ever as I try to change the habit, but I am now to the point where I don't "fear" or "hate" a run, which is progress for sure. I think this book reads great. It's non-fiction but reads just like a story. Rachel kept asking me "are you done with that yet?" because I couldn't put it down. The book talks so routinely about ultra-marathoners (50-100 mile races, usually in mountains) that the thought of this St. George marathon in October seems a tad anti-climactic. Well, I certainly can't even sniff even a "regular" marathon at this point and I probably have about 50-100 lbs to lose, not 50-100 miles to run. In any case, I loved this book and am more stoked than ever to train for a marathon as a result of reading it.
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